Now I'm a Demon Lord! Happily Ever After with Monster Girls in My Dungeon: Volume 8

By Ryuyu and Daburyu

Reborn in another world as a demon lord, Yuki is off on another adventure. This time, he’s taking part in a dungeon conquest at Nell’s invitation. He heads to their destination with half a mind to sightsee when he spies a ghost ship floating in the ocean!

With his new mace in hand, he and his allies fight off the wraiths, skeletons, and other varieties of undead monsters infesting the ship. And then, they finally come face-to-face with the enemy demon lord. But their opponent is a powerful dark magic user capable of launching attacks that inflict debuffs?! In order to defeat the enemy demon lord, Yuki will have to unleash his secret, explosive spirit magic!

• Language: English
• Publisher: J-Novel Club
• Release date: Mar 29, 2024
• ISBN: 9781718390614

Book preview

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Prologue: Form

Zaien—En—scrutinized her hands intently in silence. No matter how often she inspected her human form, it never failed to intrigue her. These things that looked like hands were temporary. Unlike her master, they weren’t real.

Like her, Shii, a slime, had merely transformed herself such that she took on a human form. Yet En suspected that her body was more akin to the dolls the wraith girls possessed. The only difference was that hers appeared much more realistic.

However, temporary though her vessel was, she felt warmth whenever she touched others. The sensation filled her heart, leaving her feeling nice and warm. For example, when she held hands with her master. Through her palm, she undoubtedly experienced something more than just the information a normal sense of touch would communicate. It went beyond mere physical contact.

Another example was when she played with the children here until she grew tired. At the end of such days, an indescribable feeling of satisfaction combined with the tiredness enveloping her whole body.

She could say the same of food as well. There was no real need for her to consume anything, but she experienced such supreme bliss when she ate the ovine young woman’s cooking that she felt as if she would float straight up to heaven.

It made En quite happy that even a puppet body like hers could provide such wonderful sensations, different from the powerful sense of satisfaction she felt when her master used her as his sword and allowed her to demonstrate what she thought of as her reason for existence. She found it very intriguing indeed.

According to her master, people used their brains to think, judge, and experience. But in addition to her original form being completely different from a person’s, she would be classified as an inorganic substance as well. Thus, the fact that she could do the same things as people indicated that, at the very least, her brain wasn’t the sole center of her senses.

In short, it was likely a matter of how the mind worked. For living beings, the vessels themselves mattered far less than what they contained: the ability to judge based on the intelligence and spirit within. Or so she theorized, anyway.

Phrased another way, it was the soul that mattered. The soul was something all life-forms possessed. Despite the vast physical differences between creatures, there was a strong possibility that the structure of the soul itself was surprisingly similar for all of them.

This thought was particularly strong for En when she looked at Shii and the wraith sisters. She wondered if that could be applied to Rir and the other pets too. They all had an organ corresponding to a brain, but since they looked so different from anthropoid species, it was hard to believe that they sensed things with just their brains. After all, they were still able to laugh, enjoy themselves, and be affected by emotions in the same way as people.

She had suddenly broached this very topic with her master once. When she had, he’d smiled ruefully and gently patted the head of her doll-like body.

You’ve sure got a lot on your mind, huh, En?

Do I really? Hmm. Perhaps I do. All she could do in her original form was think, so thinking had probably become a habit for her over time.

"I’m not smart like you, En, so I don’t really get difficult stuff like that. But I think you can solve that mystery yourself eventually. I feel like you’ve definitely got the makings of a researcher already."

Like...Leila?

Yup, exactly like her. The way you see the world is a little different from the way people see it, so who knows, you might become one of those outstanding scholars who leaves her mark on history. Even if you don’t, I bet you’d still be interested in that kind of research, right?

I...don’t know.

He roared with laughter upon hearing her response.

Ha ha ha! I should’ve known you’d say that. Well, regardless of what the future holds, En, all you have to do is live your life the way you want to, doing the things you like.

I...want to be with you, Master.

Yeah, me too. But it’s absolutely okay to have a lot of dreams too. There’s a whole lotta stuff in this world, and you don’t have to rush thinking about your future while you learn about all those things. You’ve got all the time in the world, y’know.

Many things in the world. She knew how big this world was and the fact that it contained a variety of things. She had experienced it firsthand. Or...perhaps not. Because it hadn’t been very long since she became able to walk on her own two feet, there was still so much she didn’t know about compared to others.

I wonder how big the world really is, then.

Lefifi...?

Hmm? What is it, En?

The lazing dragon girl replied to her question in a gentle tone.

How big...is the world?

En had asked her because out of everyone living in this labyrinth, she would be the most likely to know. The girl considered her words thoughtfully.

Mm. A difficult question indeed. Not only is it difficult to describe in words, but I am certain the answer will change depending on who you ask as well.

With that preface, she began to give a proper response.

How best to answer... Well, I have seen much in my days alone. But as immense as the world is, to the me of that time, it was narrow and gray. I could not help feeling constrained. Thus, I first truly felt the expanse of the world after coming here. As tiny as it is, to me, this place represents the big, wide world itself, stretching endlessly.

Wide...and narrow, narrow and wide.

Words like a riddle. Yet for some exceedingly strange reason, En understood what she wanted to say. When she had been nothing more than a cursed magic blade, only despair colored her world. However, every day now felt vivid. Compared to her life then, her world now overflowed with so many different colorful shades.

I...know how you feel.

Gah ha! I see, I see. In that case, you, too, should be able to perceive how vast this world is now, En. As long as you are aware of that knowledge, you can do anything.

Any...thing?

Indeed. Anything. I know very well how much you cherish being able to attain your greatest ambition as a weapon. Even so, through your own will, you have finally achieved that form, which allows you to stand on two legs. It is for that reason that you should consider what deeds you can accomplish using your feet. The road ahead is endless. Learn and feel as much as you can.

The dragon girl wore a broad smile as she said all that. It was the kind of smile that made En think, This is what a mother must be like.

Things I can do using my feet.

After reflecting in silence for a bit, En responded.

I want...to walk while eating yummy food.

Lefi’s eyes widened momentarily before she let out a merry laugh.

Gah ha ha! Is that so? Walking and eating, eh? What a superb notion. It does indeed sound sublime to wander the world and sample its many flavors. Since it is you we are talking about, I am confident such a feat can be accomplished.

You...should come with me, Lefifi.

Heh heh. I must admit, the idea is appealing. We shall enjoy a multitude of cuisines together, then instruct Leila on how to cook them.

Yes... That sounds wonderful. Leila will make them taste even yummier.

Indeed, for her genius knows no bounds. Upon further consideration, however, we need not do things in such a roundabout way. It will be much faster if we take her and everyone else along on our travels.

That...will be so much fun. I can’t wait.

I, too, am looking forward to it. We must consider our plans carefully after discussing this with the others.

Their conversation on the topic continued for a long time.

Live my life the way I want to, doing the things I like.

En realized that she might have been overthinking things a bit. There had been no need for her to brood so deeply when she’d known all along that living with her master and everyone else was the answer. It was what she wanted to do, what she liked, and what made her the happiest. If she could do that, she didn’t need anything else.

Maybe, just maybe, everyone in the dungeon was of the same mind. They influenced each other, connected, and resonated. Perhaps the harmony created by their bonds was the true essence of comfort.

Or maybe, on the contrary, they were like the pieces of a puzzle. Though each took on a different form, they all joined together neatly to make a complete picture. The beauty of that image might have been what she felt resounding in her heart.

Whatever the case, she understood clearly that the differences between vessels had little to do with connecting with others. What was inside mattered the most. That was the reason everyone here could live together so peacefully despite being so outwardly diverse.

This thing called life is so wondrous and intriguing. Such a thought flashed unbidden through her mind.

Chapter 1: To the Dungeon

One day, not long after Nell and Ilyr had gone back to the royal capital, Iluna was teaching me how to use the Spirit Magic that the Spirit Emperor had bestowed upon me.

Uhhh... Spin around me, please.

The pale, floating orbs of light surrounding me—the spirits I’d summoned—acted to obey my command. They immediately lined up in an orderly fashion and started moving like a unified organism, spinning around me.

Yes! That’s it! Amazing, Yukiki! I can’t believe how fast you’re learning!

It’s all ’cause I have such a great teacher. Thanks to you, even an idiot like me can pick it up easily.

Hee hee hee. You reeeally think so?

Iluna smiled bashfully at me. How precious.

So, the spirits could do a bunch of different things. First, their most fundamental ability lay in determining whether a target was good or evil. They had apparently acquired it as a means of survival since spirits were a weak species. For as long as I’d known her, Iluna had always seemed to know if she was in danger or not, and as it turned out, the reason she could make that judgment was because she borrowed the spirits’ power.

Next, there were different spirit classifications, which determined the magic that could be used. Simply put, just like regular magic, spirits had attributes—Fire Spirits could use fire magic, Water Spirits could use water magic, and so on. As a result, their environment affected their abilities. Like, while Fire Spirits couldn’t demonstrate their powers in a watery environment, they could show them off to their full extent in a volcano.

One of the advantages of using spirits to release magic was that it let you utilize all magical attributes. To use myself as an example, the very first time I’d tried to use fire magic, I’d ended up scorching some of my hair. To this day, I could barely produce a bigger flame than you’d get from a match, so there was no way I was using fire magic in combat. But by enlisting a Fire Spirit’s aid, it was possible for me to unleash fire magic with solid offensive capabilities.

To put it another way, spirits made you an all-rounder, regardless of your strength or weakness with any of the magical affinities. The power of this magic depended on the spirits’ magical energy. Except the spirits themselves didn’t possess that much magical energy, so they couldn’t release any kind of astonishingly strong magic on their own. The only way they could do so was by using external magical energy, meaning that you had to transfer your own into them.

Okay, I need to think of a good name... Got it. Ifrita, come forth.

At my command, a few of the Fire Spirits gathered together after accepting my magical energy and coalesced into a blaze resembling a woman. Ooooh. Pretty dang good for my first try.

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The humanoid blaze I’d dubbed Ifrita floated there as naturally as she pleased. She didn’t even check her own appearance despite having been brought into creation for the first time in this form. The number of Fire Spirits that had combined to make her exist was proportional to the amount of magical energy I’d given them.

Fusion robots probably made for the closest analogy. Those had multiple parts that combined to form a single, powerful robot, and the same thing happened here, just with spirits. This particular fusion spirit consisted only of Fire Spirits since they were the ones I’d given the command to.

Speaking of fusion robots—no, sorry, fusion spirits. On that subject, just like with elemental magic, the form the fusion spirit could take depended on the user’s imagination and the amount of magical energy transferred. The spirits and I had had a telepathic conversation about it.

Can you look like this? I’d asked them.

We can! they’d responded.

And that was how Ifrita’d ended up with her current appearance. The term Ifrita had immediately popped into my head when I’d thought about spirits of fire just as a general thing. I hated to admit it, but that might’ve been a sign that my mind had been poisoned... Well, regardless, the important thing was choosing something easy to understand and imagine. I’d stick to Ifrita’s image from now on whenever I fused the Fire Spirits.

Also, a fusion would fail if the amount of energy I gave to the spirits wasn’t enough to create what I was visualizing. Iluna had said that it was difficult to get the knack for measuring the right amount, so the best spirit users were supposedly the ones who could pass their powers to the spirits consistently and manipulate them however they wanted.

She herself had apparently failed at fusing spirits plenty of times. That made sense to me, though, seeing as she was still a kid. The amount of magical energy she possessed was appropriate for someone so young, so she couldn’t transfer much of it to the spirits in the first place. I was pretty sure that as she grew up, her ability to control the spirits would naturally improve.

Ifrita. Can you face that way and try out an attack?

The Fused Fire Spirit Ifrita nodded and turned toward the empty part of the meadow area I was pointing at. She thrust out both arms, and in the next moment, a fireball made a booming sound as it flew off at a tremendous speed. Then, it suddenly burst in midair, leaving behind an explosive roar.

"Whoooa... What a shocker. I did not expect the attack to be so powerful..."

That surprised me too!

For some reason, the exploding flames had looked quite lovely to me. Almost like fireworks. When I praised her, Ifrita smiled happily and spun around cheerfully. These spirits are so cute, just like little kids.

The nice thing about her was that she attacked automatically. I didn’t have to tell her what to do; I just set the target and she took care of the rest. In other words, if I created several fusion spirits in advance, I could use several kinds of magic at once. Plus, Ifrita had just shown that she had some major offensive strength. Thinking of her as a self-supporting mobile turret meant a huge increase in power.

Seriously appreciate the nice gift, Spirit Emperor. Then, I thanked the spirits and told them they were free to leave for the day. They danced around me as if saying, Call on us again soon! before vanishing into thin air.

What do you think, Yukiki? The spirits are cute, huh?!

Yup, they sure are.

It hadn’t been long since I’d thought of them as kids, but it might’ve been more accurate to describe them as innocent or pure because they listened to me without giving off even a hint of distrust. Having said that, though, it seemed that spirits lacked basically any will of their own. As beings who existed through the medium of magic, the only thing that mattered to them was whether or not their habitat was comfortable. Given that their users provided the abundant magical power they used as energy to live, it made sense that they obeyed orders so docilely.

The Spirit Emperor, who used to be an ordinary spirit, was capable of speech just like other races. But considering that old man’s Calamity-level designation, his existence might as well have been in a league of its own.

That reminded me that the dungeon had leveled up thanks to the Spirit Emperor, meaning my stats had changed too. They looked like this now:

Name: Yuki

Race: Demon Lord

Class: Demon Dragon King of Judgment

Level: 152

HP: 26,714 / 26,714

MP: 31,061 / 31,061

Strength: 3,391

Stamina: 4,290

Agility: 3,904

Magic: 5,173

Dexterity: 5,594

Luck: 92

Ability Points: 18

Special Abilities: Demon Eyes, Polyglot, Flight, Indomitability, Ruler’s Might, Spirit Magic

Abilities: Inventory, Analysis 10, Unarmed Combat 6, Elemental Magic 7, Stealth 6, Scout 6, Swordsmanship 5, Weapon Enhancement 6, Sorcerer’s Grant 10, Traps 4, Greatswordsmanship 7, Camouflage 5, Danger Detection 6, Dance 3, Awareness Priming 1

Titles: The Demon Lord from Another World, The Supreme Dragon’s Owner, The Adjudicator, Enemy of Humanity, One Who Defies Death, Demon King of Dragonkind, The Supreme Dragon’s Consort, One Acknowledged by the Spirit Emperor

Dungeon Points (DP): 160,840

Compared to before, I leveled up at a much slower rate now. I’d reached the point where it took quite a bit of time to go from one level to the next. But considering that I was only a year and several months old, my leveling speed was insanely high. And despite the fact that my level hadn’t increased too much, my stats themselves had gone up a good deal, which was probably because the Spirit Emperor had shared power with me.

That said, on closer inspection, I didn’t see much of a difference in my current stats versus my previous ones. I had enough self-awareness to realize how numb I was growing to the numbers as they went up over time. It wasn’t like they even mattered since they were still nowhere close to Lefi’s. Every last one was insignificant compared to hers. So, with that in mind, I didn’t give two shits about my current stat values.

I did have one new special ability in the form of Spirit Magic. Y’know, the thing I’d used earlier. It made me happy whenever I gained a special ability.

The same went for normal abilities. I’d gotten Awareness Priming as a drop when I’d had Nell do those loot rolls. I wanted to test it out as soon as possible.

An additional title had been added too: One Acknowledged by the Spirit Emperor. I guessed that whatever system was responsible for titles recognized it because I’d been given the power to handle spirits.

All right, now that I’m done learning the gist of spirit magic and its capabilities...

There was only one thing for me to do after gaining new abilities. Drumroll, please... Monster hunting!

◇ ◇ ◇

Okay, lookin’ good, everyone! Surround it, just like that!

Obeying my instructions, my pets maintained a careful distance while positioning themselves around our opponent—a bear with a thick, spiked carapace covering its whole body, kinda like how a human would wear protective gear. It was called a Panzer Ursa.

Though it was twice my height, there were plenty of monsters in the Demonic Forest way bigger than this one, so you could call a creature its size the norm here. After all, size equaled strength in these parts. Never mind the fact lots of small, powerful monsters existed in the Forest as well.

Among the monsters inhabiting the western area, it was faster to count a Panzer Ursa from the bottom of the hierarchy in terms of stats. But it was still incredibly strong by nature. Anyone who underestimated it would wind up dead.

Mr. Bear watched my pets with an intense, wary gaze as they surrounded him. Too bad your real enemy is me.

Sorry for ruining your little chill sesh, Mr. Bear. Just think of this as bad luck and give up. Leviathan, come forth!

In response to my shout, numerous spirits gathered together in one spot after accepting the huge amount of magic I gave to them. Then, finally, what appeared was a massive dragon with